5 February 2010: Weekend

Government permission now required before killing American terrorists.

Op: Obama promised to fight corruption and has not; faith in congress is gone; our democracy is feigned, breeding cynicism.

Part one: The U.S.-China relationship is too big to fail; we've seen these snafus before.

Part two: Neither the U.S. nor China will prosper if disagreements become conflicts.

Part three: We treat China, a crucial economic partner, as an adversary; how many enemies do we need?

Slideshow of five world leaders unknown to be dead or alive.

Instapaper for Saturday: Port-au-Prince is a city of high walls, all of which came down.

Blog chronicles a frozen house in Detroit.

Announcement TMN seeks winter intern.

Some states store baby DNA; outside researchers sometimes get specimens with names attached.

New form of insulin derived from safflowers.

Nature calls on scientists to write more popular books (see also: Q&A on writing a textbook).

Audio: Radiolab's Krulwich exhorts CalTech graduates to tell stories--if only to combat ignorance in Turkey.

"Neurocriminology," applying neuroscience to understand criminality, is limited, but it's meeting less institutional resistance.

Thought-controlled lighting to be demoed at the Winter Olympics.

Reporter's account of having her brain temporarily "switched off."

Deresiewicz calls the new Nabokov "a sham, a scam, a red herring," a Knopf canard for cash.

Videos: Appreciation, with notes, of the great Buster Keaton.

Archive of 38 years of Super Bowl commercials.